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Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Southmoreland Holiday Classic lived up to its name on Friday, with a classic finals matchup featuring two of the nation's best 120-pounders.
North Star's Nick Roberts, a two-time PIAA champion, was the second seed behind Kittanning's Jason Nolf, who won the 103-pound title last season and entered the match with a career record of 58-0.
Rather than describe the whole match here, you can read about it and watch the video of the entire match here.
I thought Roberts pushed the action, but Nolf is unconventional, to say the least, and did what he needed to do tie up the match. I was a little surprised that he wasn't warned for stalling with the side headlock, which seemed designed to choke out Roberts more than turn him, but he certainly was effective with it.
All in all, it was a great match between two great wrestlers and certainly lived up to the hype.
I also made a video featuring the four champions from The Tribune-Democrat's coverage area: Ligonier Valley's Justin Patrick (106 pounds), Meyersdale's Stephen McKenzie (132) and Forest Hills' R.J. Brydon (145) and Cody Law (160).
I expected to have complete results by now from Southmoreland, but I haven't received the email from the tournament director yet. I'll post them when I receive them.

I also haven't had a chance to even look at the POWERade results, as the videos took far longer to complete than expected.

Analysis: Stunning. That's the only way I can describe what I saw in Berlin on Friday night.
It pretty much summed up Somerset coach Brian Barron's assessment of it, too.

"We're stunned, but I'll tell you what –
they showed up," he said. "Berlin came to wrestle tonight."

The Mountaineers certainly did. This wasn't just the Berlin team I expected to see at the beginning of the season, it was much better. It looked nothing like the team that lost dual meets to Conemaugh Township and Meyersdale this season.

"It's the same team, same work ethic,
just a little bit of the nerves are gone at this point," Berlin coach Jason Cornell said.

Yes, Berlin probably doesn't win without the disqualification of Mike Laue at 138, but that was far from the only surprise of the night. I talked with someone earlier Thursday who said Berlin should win two, maybe three matches, but that was probably it. From what I'd seen of Berlin earlier, that seemed like a fair assessment to me, but the Mountaineers won six matches even without the DQ.

Now, back to the slam. It seemed like a fairly straightforward call for referee Brandon Boburchock. Laue scored a quick takedown on Thompson and, 1:25 into the match, Thompson stood up. Laue trapped his arm, lifted and did not safely return him to the mat. It certainly didn't look like there was any malicious intent involved, but there also was no real argument from Somerset fans.

"I questioned it a little bit in my
head, but it is what it is," Barron said. "The call was made and that's the end of
it."

Most wrestling fans feel it's their duty to question whether or not a wrestler is "really" hurt, whether it's just a well-timed injury timeout or something as dramatic as a disqualification. Again, I didn't hear any complaints from the Somerset side about Thompson being unable to continue. He barely moved after the slam and was checked out by the athletic trainer, who determined it wouldn't be safe for him to return to the mat. Furthermore, he sat quietly for the remainder of the dual meet, talking with the trainer and showing no signs of someone who was "faking" an injury just to help the team.

But that was far from the only talking point in the dual.

Having come directly from Southmoreland, I didn't get there in time for the first three matches, but Berlin got a a nice surprise at 182, where first-year wrestler Andre Dauphinais was able to avoid giving up bonus points in a 5-0 loss to Jacob Nickelson. Then, the Mountaineers picked up some big bonus points of their own when Jacob Craig pinned Patrick Blough with 14 seconds left in what had been a 5-0 match.

The Mountaineers' surge continued even in a pair of losses. Heavyweight Mitchell Walker looked very good in a 3-2 loss to Jake Hayman. Walker had a first-period takedown and led until Hayman scored a reversal with 1:01 remaining. Even though Walker couldn't escape to tie it, psychologically, that was a win for Berlin.

So was the 106 match, where Somerset's Garret Foster had a 9-1 lead over Tommy DeArmitt with 25 seconds remaining. DeArmitt escaped to erase the major, then got a takedown of his own to ensure there were no bonus points and make the Berlin fans feel like the 9-4 loss was actually a win.

Somerset's only real positive surprise came at 120, where Sheldon Wagner stuck with Chris Miller for much of the match, then got a reversal and two backpoints in the third period in what ended up being a 7-4 Miller victory.

Berlin's E.J. Custer got a big first-period fall over Tyler Walker at 126 and Eric Darr followed with an even more impressive 5-0 victory over Jon Fabian at 132.

Somerset's Landon Lohr controlled his match with Blake Miller at 138, but by playing the takedown game instead of looking for a fall, ended up with only a 13-6 victory to show for it. Advantage: Berlin.

The match of the night might have been Trace Heffner's 5-1 victory over Josh Darr at 152. Darr was close to a takedown in the first period, but Heffner was able to fight it off, then got one of his own with 5 seconds left in the period. Heffner escaped in the second and, after an injury timeout for a knee problem that looked like it might force a default, he led 3-0 heading into the third. Darr came close to a reversal but ultimately ended up with an escape 15 seconds into the third. From there, it was another battle from the neutral position, and Heffner eventually got a takedown with 11 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

Even the final match - a Somerset win by Michael Sutton - was a positive for Berlin. Freshman Bryce Fochtman, who is essentially wrestling up a weight class, was put on his back in the first period, but outscored Sutton 6-5 the rest of the way in what ended up being a 10-6 match.

"We changed everything," Cornell said of Berlin's approach. "I shaved my
beard off. We changed the routine before the match. We came ready to
wrestle."

It certainly should inject a little life into the District 5 dual meet race.

Analysis: Not too many surprises on Day 1. Forest Hills 106-pounder Triston Law knocked off second-seeded Jake Rothka of Bentworth thanks, in large part, to an inexcusable mistake by Rothka. He went to the mat without his shoelaces covered. That gave Law a point before the match ever start and put Rothka in a hole he could never recover from. He came close to a takedown a few times and nearly had a reversal at the end of the second, but still trailed 1-0 in the third. Rothka eventually had to let Law up and couldn't come up with the tying takedown in the final seconds.You can read about the other nine local semifinalists here.
I've already been asked about doing streaming video or a live chat for today's action. I don't think that will be possible - the media setup at Southmoreland was non-existent on Wednesday and will likely be far from ideal today - but I will update with results when I can. I also plan to shoot video today and will post the entire Nick Roberts-Jason Nolf showdown on The Tribune-Democrat's website, assuming it happens.

POWERade

Westmont Hilltop has two wrestlers in the semifinals - Ryan Burnheimer (182) and Josh Duplin (285) and two still alive in the consolation rounds - Ian Helsel (145) and Don Shovestull (220). Here's a link to the complete results.Analysis: Burnheimer and Duplin lived up to their seeds. Duplin's road will get much more difficult today, though, will Blair Academy's Brooks Black - who is ranked first nationally by Intermat - in the semifinals.
The pleasant surprise for Westmont has to be Don Shovestull, who knocked eighth-seeded Antonio Pelusi of LaSalle College before falling to No. 1 Thomas Haines of Solanco in the quarters.